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Traffic Signal |
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| Movie: | Traffic Signal |
| Director: | Madhur Bhandarkar |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Start Cast: |
Kunal Khemu, Neetu Chandra, Konkona
Sen Sharma, Ranveer Shorey, Raja
Pandit and Upyendra Limaye |
| Our Rating: |
** |
| Review By: | Shalu Singh |
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 Madhur Bhandarkar always takes up the subjects, which are far away from the commercial cinema. In his previous movies he has portrayed different sections of human society and now he is coming with Traffic Signal. Although all his movies might not have been blockbusters but they have been able to generate an impact on the mind of the viewers. This time also Traffic Signal has gained a lot of media attention even before its release.
When you go to watch a Bhandarkar film, you are pre-conditioned to expect a good story, which is often simplistic, but manages to be effective in its own way! The predicament with Traffic Signal is that the movie lacks a good storyline or in fact one can say that it simply runs without a story. TRAFFIC SIGNAL is more of a collage of moments than a proper script.
But in spite of the fact that the movie is all about a bunch of characters, one would soon realize that Silsila, (Kunal Khemu) is the main actor of the movie. He is a young orphan, who had been living at the signal since his birth, and now managing the signal business. For him, the Signal is his workplace and the people working there are a family, but at the same time he spares nobody when it comes to business. The movie fails to imply a relationship between different scenes of the movie.
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 As the Jaffar [D. Santosh] is the cash collector (Hafta Vasuli) of his region and also Silsila's boss. Both Jaffar and Silsila work for the local Mafioso, Haji [Sudhir Mishra]. But Silsila is non-existent for the world of local mafia and politicians and is limited to the money collection from one of the traffic signal of Mumbai. And yet how he gets trapped into a filthy game is what I leave for you all to go and watch!!!
Other interesting characters include Rani (Neetu Chandra), who sells Gujarati clothes at the signal. There is Noorie (Konkona Sen Sharma), a prostitute who solicits customers at night. There is Dominic (Ranvir Shorey), a drug addict who tells his sad stories to everyone. There is Khadi, a social worker. Then there is Tsunami, a child of about age of 8 or 9 years, who lost his parents in Tsunami disaster. There is Damroo, a child of the same age, who is dark in complexion and wants to become fair.
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 Madhur does not peep into every character. All he does is introduces a character that breathes the same air, lives on the same traffic signal. And nothing beyond that do we get to know about them in the movie. Actually, the story begins in the middle of the second half when an engineer is shot dead by goons for a flyover contract. The climax is unconventional. There's no herogiri or bhashanbaazi in the movie. There are also some funny moments in the movie like - when a rich man finds the beggar, whom he always gives money whenever he stops on that signal, in a multiplex, the way Damroo buys fairness cream and how Haji deals with two sales men who used to irritate him by calling him again and again daily for home loan.
But one can't go without saying that the way Madhur has dressed up his characters whether it was their costumes or the makeup they wore, they looked real, Absolutely real!! And, of course, the performance of the characters did play a role in making them look so real.
As far as the music of the movie is concerned except for the fact that Bhupendra has sung in the movie after a big break, it is very typical of Madhur movies. There is no earthshaking music. It is very normal music and songs that one would get to hear.
In a nutshell, 'Traffic Signal' is like a body but without soul, it has every thing but lacks the most important aspect of movie making……A Storyline…
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